Speaker 1: Hi, Curse Up listeners, I know you miss me on
Speaker 1: your feed. Don't worry. We're working on an all new
Speaker 1: season of Curse Of coming out later this year. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, if you can't stop thinking about the shocking
Speaker 1: stories you heard about America's Next Top Model, you'll definitely
Speaker 1: want to check out our new docuseries from E Dirty
Speaker 1: Rotten Scandals. In the series, you'll hear from the America's
Speaker 1: Next Top Model participants you heard from on Curse Of,
Speaker 1: and a few you didn't like former A and TM
Speaker 1: judge Janis Dickinson. Dirty Rotten Scandals unveils the dark underbelly
Speaker 1: of the long running TV series through the untold stories
Speaker 1: of former contestants, and shows what happens when a golden
Speaker 1: opportunity for aspiring models unravels into a harrowing saga of exploitation,
Speaker 1: shattered dreams, and resilience. You can find the two part
Speaker 1: docuseries Dirty Rotten Scandals America's Next Top Model on E Network.
Speaker 1: Check your local TV provider schedule.
Speaker 2: Would Adrian and Shannon come in? Please?
Speaker 1: It's July eighth, two thousand and three, and America's Next
Speaker 1: Top Model is about to crown its first ever winner.
Speaker 3: The judges have reached a decision.
Speaker 2: One of you is about to be a star.
Speaker 1: After weeks of watching ten, then nine, then eight, and
Speaker 1: finally the last two women be transformed into POI supermodels.
Speaker 1: The most deserving young woman was about to have all
Speaker 1: her dreams come true.
Speaker 2: Let me remind you what's at stake. A contract with Revlin,
Speaker 2: a fashion spread in Marie Claire magazine, and representation by
Speaker 2: top modeling agency Will and Minas.
Speaker 1: The two finalists, Adrian Curry and Shannon Stewart, were standing
Speaker 1: there because they desperately wanted to become top models. They were,
Speaker 1: of course both tall, thin and pretty, but Shannon, with
Speaker 1: her blue eyes, blonde hair, and tan skin, had a
Speaker 1: more obvious beauty that gave all American supermodel. Adrian, with
Speaker 1: her pale skin and dark hair, had a more gothic look,
Speaker 1: a bit like our early two thousands Angelina Joli minus Phillips.
Speaker 1: Shannon and Adrian, We're both so young eighteen and twenty.
Speaker 1: Shannon had never traveled without her family before, and for Adrian,
Speaker 1: this opportunity was her ticket out of a small dead
Speaker 1: in town.
Speaker 2: The winner's picture is hanging behind me, and when the
Speaker 2: cloth is dropped, it will reveal who will be America's
Speaker 2: next Top Model.
Speaker 1: They had no idea the show they had just spent
Speaker 1: nine weeks filming would launch a global phenomenon.
Speaker 2: The decision is made, America's next Top Model is.
Speaker 4: Adrian, But after the cameras went down, Adrian would become
Speaker 4: the first contestant to fall victim to the Curse of
Speaker 4: America's Next Top Model.
Speaker 1: She thought when she stepped off that set she was
Speaker 1: stepping into a career as a top model with a
Speaker 1: beauty contract an agency representation to give her a head start,
Speaker 1: But those prizes never materialized, and neither did her modeling career.
Speaker 1: I want to be on some Welcome to the Curse
Speaker 1: of America's Next Top Model. I'm Bridget Armstrong. For a
Speaker 1: lot of A and TM fans, Cycle one was just
Speaker 1: address or her as well. They say the show didn't
Speaker 1: really get good until season two, but cycle one was
Speaker 1: the blueprint for what A and TM eventually became. So
Speaker 1: on this episode, we're going back to the origins to
Speaker 1: explore how this low budget Tyra Banks passion project became
Speaker 1: a cultural phenomenon. We'll talk about how the season came
Speaker 1: together and explore how from the very beginning, the show's
Speaker 1: popularity overshadowed the body shaming, manipulation and false promises. A
Speaker 1: and TM was built on Adrian's win in cycle helped
Speaker 1: launch the top model machine that grew into a global franchise.
Speaker 1: The problem is it didn't produce a top model in
Speaker 1: these days. Adrian has been very candid about the show
Speaker 1: failing to live up to its promises. Here she is
Speaker 1: talking from an interview with in Touch Weekly in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two.
Speaker 5: It's certainly not a show that anyone in the fashion
Speaker 5: industry wants to touch you if you bet on it
Speaker 5: and season one, you don't know that that we knew
Speaker 5: as much as Kelly Clarkson knew going into American Idol.
Speaker 1: But unlike Kelly Clarkson, Adrian didn't become a superstar. She
Speaker 1: didn't sell eighty seven million records or win three Grammys.
Speaker 1: She certainly doesn't have a talk show. Adrian's an avon
Speaker 1: lady living in rural Montana, and according to her, she
Speaker 1: never got that Revlin deal and the Wilhelmina contract was
Speaker 1: an empty promise. She says the agents completely ignored her.
Speaker 1: In fact, once she left the show, she discovered that
Speaker 1: no one in the modeling world took her seriously when
Speaker 1: it came to fashion. America's Next Top Model wasn't a
Speaker 1: leg up. It was a black mark. From the beginning,
Speaker 1: the show seemed to prioritize making great TV, not great models.
Speaker 1: But that may not have been Tyra's goal at first.
Speaker 1: So let's pick back up where we left Tyra before
Speaker 1: she even had a team or models to disappoint. Once
Speaker 1: America's Next Top Model was greenlit, upn wanted to start
Speaker 1: production almost immediately, and for the first season they gave
Speaker 1: them a tire budget of five hundred thousand dollars per episode.
Speaker 1: Now that might sound like a lot of money, but
Speaker 1: Top Model is an expensive show to make. There are
Speaker 1: at least ten models who have to be housed, an
Speaker 1: international trip, ten on location photoshoots, and ten challenges that
Speaker 1: all have to be paid for, as well as a
Speaker 1: full production crew, makeup artists and stylists, a panel of
Speaker 1: judges and experts, and Tyra Banks herself who all have
Speaker 1: to be paid to put it into cond text. By
Speaker 1: cycle ten, the episode budget was well over one million dollars.
Speaker 1: To make cycle one work, they had to find a
Speaker 1: cast and crew quickly, so Tyra called in some favors
Speaker 1: people who would do the show not for a big paycheck,
Speaker 1: but for Tyra. She was friends with former model and
Speaker 1: Babyfat director Komoralie Simmons, so she got her to be
Speaker 1: a judge on cycle one. Also joining the panel of
Speaker 1: judges was Boquillian, who at the time was the fashion
Speaker 1: editor at Marie Claire, the magazine that would give the
Speaker 1: winner a spread. And of course, rounding out the panel
Speaker 1: was supermodel excuse me, the first supermodel, Janis Dickinson, and
Speaker 1: that's literally how they introduced her on the first episode.
Speaker 6: Janis became one of the world's first supermodels in the
Speaker 6: nineteen seventies and her face was featured everywhere and had.
Speaker 7: Been in this industry for quite a long time, making
Speaker 7: me probably the most opinionated person on the panel.
Speaker 6: All right, next we have four.
Speaker 1: Jannis became known for her less than gracious opinions, but
Speaker 1: according to her, she was just doing her job. Here
Speaker 1: she is in twenty twenty two talking about her role
Speaker 1: on the show. When I was hired to do America's
Speaker 1: Next Top Model, Tyra hired me to be like a
Speaker 1: female Simon Cowell to be feeding in a negative fashion
Speaker 1: things about the girls, and as we know, Janie did
Speaker 1: her job well, maybe too well.
Speaker 3: There's so many teeth in her mouth.
Speaker 8: I mean it's like maybe she should have a few removed.
Speaker 7: Got to work on the side that the booty thing
Speaker 7: your ass was.
Speaker 2: Going, you know, wiggle walk and wig walk.
Speaker 1: Escathing vitriolic judge check. Next, they needed some fashion experts
Speaker 1: to transform these scrinny confused teenagers into supermodels. So Tyra
Speaker 1: brought in somebody who trained her when she was a
Speaker 1: squarnny teenager.
Speaker 6: I have the one and the only top runway trainer.
Speaker 1: I have known him.
Speaker 6: Since I was seventeen years old.
Speaker 1: His name is Jay Alexander. Come on, Jay Alexander or
Speaker 1: Miss Jay was well known in the industry is the
Speaker 1: go to person to teach young models how to slay
Speaker 1: the runway, and two thousand and three it was a
Speaker 1: big deal to feature a queer black man who went
Speaker 1: by miss on a mainstream show, and from the beginning,
Speaker 1: Miss j was his authentic, fabulous self. On episode two,
Speaker 1: he taught the girls how to walk while wearing nothing
Speaker 1: but a black shirt, drawls and heels.
Speaker 9: Jay walked out a little black like underwear something in
Speaker 9: high heels.
Speaker 10: Jay's legs look a lot better than mine.
Speaker 2: New So yeah, my motto is walk like it's for
Speaker 2: sale and the rent is due tonight.
Speaker 1: Next there was Jay Mayuel or Mister j. He eventually
Speaker 1: became a judge in the show's creative director, but on
Speaker 1: cycle one he first appeared as the makeup artist on
Speaker 1: the makeover episode. Here he is wiping away a lot
Speaker 1: of dramatic tears.
Speaker 7: Don't look so sad.
Speaker 11: Models are canvases.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're canvas and they're also chameleons.
Speaker 11: Wow.
Speaker 1: This was before Jay's iconic silver hair. He was still
Speaker 1: a brunette here. So they had their judges, they had
Speaker 1: their Jay's and now they needed their model. They began
Speaker 1: a nationwide search, and despite not knowing what this was
Speaker 1: going to be, young women showed up and sent in
Speaker 1: their audition tape. At least one contestant was cast the
Speaker 1: Fairytale Way literally at Disneyland. Jazelle Sampson was working as
Speaker 1: a dancer at Disney where her coworker approached her.
Speaker 7: It came up to me, he was like, what are
Speaker 7: you doing here?
Speaker 1: You should be modeling, And then he said something that
Speaker 1: would change Jazelle's life Forever.
Speaker 7: My ex girlfriend. She's in casting, and there's the show
Speaker 7: called Supermodels. Originally it was called Supermodels, or maybe that
Speaker 7: was the alias that they were using.
Speaker 1: She gave her coworker her head shot. He passed it
Speaker 1: along to his ex who was working and casting for
Speaker 1: a and m Jazelle didn't hear anything for a while.
Speaker 1: Then a few months later she got a call about
Speaker 1: that Supermodel show.
Speaker 7: And I got the phone call on New Year's Eve Eve,
Speaker 7: December thirtieth of two thousand and two. They were like, hey,
Speaker 7: can you come in right now and meet with our producers.
Speaker 7: I literally changed, got in my car, went to CBS
Speaker 7: Studios in office and I walked in and I was just,
Speaker 7: you know, thinking I was just going to meet a
Speaker 7: couple of producers, and then there was Tyra Banks sitting
Speaker 7: right there in front of my facet.
Speaker 1: As I've heard over and over on the first seasons,
Speaker 1: Tyra was extremely involved in every aspect of production, including casting.
Speaker 1: Do Thelle remembers Tyra asking her to lift up her
Speaker 1: shirt to show her stomach. She wanted her to do
Speaker 1: a runway walk right there in between the cubicles. The
Speaker 1: idea terrified her.
Speaker 7: I freaked out. I freaked out, and I was like,
Speaker 7: I'm gonna lose the opportunity. I started crying. She was like,
Speaker 7: oh my god, that's probably what got me WHA. I
Speaker 7: started crying because I was so self conscious because I
Speaker 7: have s curve scoliosis, and so I had a total breakdown.
Speaker 7: And she was like, oh my gosh, girl, we all
Speaker 7: were tall, we all have that. Don't worry about it.
Speaker 7: And I was like, okay, cool. So she boosted my
Speaker 7: confidence at the time, and so I did my thing.
Speaker 1: You know what. Gazelle might have a point about her
Speaker 1: breakdown getting her cast. Her entire storyline was focused on
Speaker 1: her supposed lack of confidence and her callback. Tyra asked
Speaker 1: Aazil one more thing, how she would feel if she
Speaker 1: became famous.
Speaker 7: I lost my shit again, and I just started crying
Speaker 7: because I could just I got this overwhelming like sense
Speaker 7: of like this is my time, this is a sign,
Speaker 7: like I'm going to be famous now, like this is it.
Speaker 1: Gazelle, like many women I've talked to, thought this was
Speaker 1: her big break, that she had been discovered. The next day,
Speaker 1: casting director Michelle Mock, no relation to ep Kin, Mock
Speaker 1: called Gazil they wanted her to come back in for
Speaker 1: a meeting with the network Exis.
Speaker 7: She was like, I'm going to drive you, so I
Speaker 7: got in her car. I was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 7: casting doctors, Deere me and he Mercedes Matins and all
Speaker 7: that stuff.
Speaker 1: The meeting didn't take long. Afterwards, Michelle Mack came up
Speaker 1: to her and.
Speaker 7: Said, I'm so sorry, but you're gonna have to figure
Speaker 7: out how to get warm clothes because you're going to
Speaker 7: New York in four days. And within twenty four hours
Speaker 7: I got the gig.
Speaker 1: Just want to point out Dazell made it onto the
Speaker 1: show because she knew a guy who knew a guy.
Speaker 1: In later seasons, thousands of people would show up to
Speaker 1: casting calls and waiting lines for hours for a small
Speaker 1: possibility of just being seen. Jazelle's casting happened so fast
Speaker 1: she wasn't even prepared. She didn't have a passport, a
Speaker 1: requirement in case she stayed on the show long enough
Speaker 1: for the international trip. She and her mother had to
Speaker 1: rush to get her one. She didn't even have winter clothes.
Speaker 1: Her entire wardrobe on the show was borrowed from a friend.
Speaker 1: Getting on the plane, Jazelle barely knew what the show's
Speaker 1: format was going to be. Here's what she was told.
Speaker 7: They said, you're gonna have cameras on you twenty four
Speaker 7: to seven. They'll go down when you guys go to bed,
Speaker 7: and they'll be up when you guys get up. But
Speaker 7: that's all I knew. And then we were going to
Speaker 7: go do some modeling things, and then we were going
Speaker 7: to be judged on that and hopefully make it to
Speaker 7: the next round. But there wasn't really much said.
Speaker 1: Jazelle quit her job and took us semester off college.
Speaker 1: But before she could officially join the cast, there was
Speaker 1: one teeny tiny piece of business. She was handed a
Speaker 1: stack of papers and told to sign.
Speaker 7: I was seventeen years old, just five months before I
Speaker 7: got this competition show, and they threw legalities at me.
Speaker 7: You know, you need to sign this, you know, the
Speaker 7: releases and everything. And I was so excited to be
Speaker 7: on the show. I didn't know what I was signing.
Speaker 7: And I didn't even have time to like have my
Speaker 7: parents look over at have a lawyer look over at nothing.
Speaker 7: I just was like, Oh, I'm so excited, and they're
Speaker 7: dangling fame and fortune and television and you know, being
Speaker 7: a star right in front of my face. I'm going
Speaker 7: to sign anything, you know.
Speaker 1: So she signed those papers and was cast on the
Speaker 1: very first season of Tyra Banks's new modeling show.
Speaker 11: Up and Tomorrow. Ten women go ahead to head for
Speaker 11: the ultimate prize, a modeling contract with Revlin, Meet Giselle.
Speaker 12: I hate to be bothered, seriously, when people are like,
Speaker 12: you need to do this or you need to wear this.
Speaker 7: I just I'm like, will you meeting alone?
Speaker 1: Spoiler alert. Cycle one did not make Giselle star, but
Speaker 1: it did make America's Next Top Model a hit, with
Speaker 1: a Revlin.
Speaker 11: Contract at stayed America's Next.
Speaker 7: Top Model Overmiers tonight after Buffy on ups Jimmy.
Speaker 1: We'll get into that after the break. America's Next Top
Speaker 1: Model premiered on May twentieth, two thousand and three, to
Speaker 1: an audience of nearly three million. It quickly became one
Speaker 1: of the most successful shows on UPN and there are
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons for that. I wanted to call
Speaker 1: up someone who could explain the pop culture climate back
Speaker 1: in two thousand and three, someone with insight on what
Speaker 1: made A and TM and shows like it such a hit.
Speaker 11: I am the original influencer. In fact, that word didn't
Speaker 11: even exist when I again back in two thousand and four.
Speaker 1: That's Perez Hilton. He made his name terrorizing anyone who
Speaker 1: had the misfortune of being famous in the early two
Speaker 1: thousands and back then.
Speaker 11: People weren't really talking about celebrities online. The websites for
Speaker 11: the magazines people dot com, Usweekly dot com. They were
Speaker 11: just placeholders. Go to our website to sign up for
Speaker 11: a subscription to the magazine. Nobody was breaking news on
Speaker 11: the internet. And then I come along and that's all
Speaker 11: that I'm doing every day.
Speaker 1: Back in the day, Perez was messy. Honestly, messi is
Speaker 1: an understatement. He was accused of outing Lance Bath, Neil
Speaker 1: Patrick Harris, and Jodie Foster. He constantly mocked celebrities appearances
Speaker 1: and wait by featuring unflattering paparazzi photos. In one of
Speaker 1: this posts, he linked to a possible upskirt photo of
Speaker 1: an underaged Miley Cyrus.
Speaker 11: The Insider did a segment on Hollywood's Most Hated websites,
Speaker 11: and they reached out to me and said, what if
Speaker 11: we made you number one? Then, for the longest time,
Speaker 11: for years after that, I called myself Perez Hilton dot Com,
Speaker 11: Hollywood's most hated website.
Speaker 1: Besides being an expert on early two thousands culture, Perez
Speaker 1: was a guest judge on ANTM in its later seasons.
Speaker 1: So before I talked to him about the early odds,
Speaker 1: I wanted to know what he thinks about all the
Speaker 1: contestants who've been trashing Tyra in the show.
Speaker 11: I encourage everybody to speak up and share their story,
Speaker 11: and I don't have to agree with it. If you
Speaker 11: hated it that much, you could have quit, you could
Speaker 11: have stopped.
Speaker 1: I might not agree with Perez on this one, but
Speaker 1: I'll say this about him. As a person who made
Speaker 1: his career out of embarrassing celebrities, he knows what audiences
Speaker 1: really want. At least at our most base.
Speaker 11: Nature, viewers enjoy watching others be humiliated and tortured and
Speaker 11: going through difficult things. That's why shows like Survivor and
Speaker 11: The Amazing Race and America's Next Top Model were popular.
Speaker 1: A and TM certainly got the humiliation part right, and
Speaker 1: viewers loved it. Brez has a theory about the early
Speaker 1: two thousands being ripe for reality TV, especially the kind
Speaker 1: where people made fools of themselves like top model. He
Speaker 1: thinks it was a reaction to the very real and
Speaker 1: very scary things happening in the world.
Speaker 11: We were coming out of nine to eleven, We were
Speaker 11: coming out of American troops at war, and that's real life.
Speaker 11: So when you translate wanting to see celebrities being real,
Speaker 11: flaws and all, once again, for me, it's escapism, you know,
Speaker 11: easily digestible escapism.
Speaker 1: People must have really needed that escape because, compared to
Speaker 1: the other big reality shows at the time, A and
Speaker 1: TM was low budget, Survivor had almost quadrupled the budget
Speaker 1: and they flew an entire cast and crew to a
Speaker 1: remote country for weeks. The amazing race flew teens of
Speaker 1: people all over the world. Tyra, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: was trying to figure out how to get enough bed
Speaker 1: sheets for the model's rooms. Here she is in twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen reminiscing about cycle one.
Speaker 11: What do you remember most from when that.
Speaker 6: Show just stirred a cheap budget, like not being happy
Speaker 6: with how the beds looked, and me going to linens
Speaker 6: and things in bed, bath and beyond and shopping on
Speaker 6: my own.
Speaker 7: Credit cards to fill out the rooms.
Speaker 6: The girls on the first poster have my clothes on Yes,
Speaker 6: these Victoria's secret little like bandeaux tops and skirts.
Speaker 7: Those were my clothes that I put.
Speaker 6: In a trash bag or the airplane because I didn't
Speaker 6: want to put it in a suitcases and I'd have
Speaker 6: to check it and I was scared that if would
Speaker 6: get lost and then we'd have no clothes for the poster.
Speaker 1: Chatty people were broke. And remember the iconic judging panel. Well,
Speaker 1: on cycle one.
Speaker 6: The judging room was actually blue drape all around the rooms,
Speaker 6: but that was a hotel room where we moved a
Speaker 6: bed and stuff out. There was a hotel room the
Speaker 6: first judging room.
Speaker 1: You know what, that makes sense because Tyra and the
Speaker 1: panel were squeezed in at that table like the models
Speaker 1: on cycle five during that phone booth photo shoot. In fact,
Speaker 1: Giselle told me that the so called penthouse was just
Speaker 1: a bunch of regular hotel rooms.
Speaker 7: What they did is they took the top floor and
Speaker 7: they took all of the rooms, and they like took
Speaker 7: the doors off and then they combined it. There was
Speaker 7: no penthouse or anything like that.
Speaker 1: Ken Mark struck a deal with the hotel to house
Speaker 1: the models and crew in exchange for promotion on the show.
Speaker 1: That's why there are so many shots of the hotel
Speaker 1: signage in this season. And we're not talking about the
Speaker 1: rents here. It was a small, low key New York
Speaker 1: hotel that's now out of business. I'm telling you. These
Speaker 1: people were making it on a hope and a.
Speaker 7: Prayer, using bread, a bag, you know, those little ties
Speaker 7: to like hold curtains together. And I guess we were,
Speaker 7: you know, the guinea pigs. So it was more of
Speaker 7: like a free for all and let's figure it out
Speaker 7: as we go sort of thing.
Speaker 1: Facle One didn't have the budget for the over the
Speaker 1: top photo shoots and stunts that became synonymous with A
Speaker 1: and TM in later seasons. Instead, the models did runway walks,
Speaker 1: a bikini photoshoot on a cold rooftop, They went to
Speaker 1: casting calls, did a mock commercial, worked with PR people,
Speaker 1: and did a magazine interview. The most shocking things they
Speaker 1: did were a mostly nude photo shoot where Robin uttered
Speaker 1: these iconic words. Last week it.
Speaker 7: Was sprawn panties.
Speaker 11: I probably wouldn't never do it.
Speaker 7: This week it's two strands of ribbon and us all,
Speaker 7: what is it gonna be next week?
Speaker 1: And they did a beauty shot with a snake. From
Speaker 1: the beginning, antm loved an animal prop I wonder if
Speaker 1: they had a deal with an exotic animal agency or something.
Speaker 1: But my point is the absence of death defying photoshoots
Speaker 1: and ridiculous challenges, they had to use what they had,
Speaker 1: the judges, experts, and of course the models. When Gazelle
Speaker 1: was brought onto the show, she and another contestant named
Speaker 1: Tessa were the last to join the cast. The other
Speaker 1: girls were already in New York at the hotel, and
Speaker 1: they used Gazelle and Tessa's entrance to stir up some
Speaker 1: conflict on the very first episode.
Speaker 6: You guys, you know, are a finalists, but I like
Speaker 6: very round numbers.
Speaker 3: So what I did is I did a nationwide search
Speaker 3: for two more.
Speaker 13: Oh my, I was like what I had literally just
Speaker 13: said a minute before, curls.
Speaker 11: I'm glad it's see eight of.
Speaker 7: Us, So come on in here.
Speaker 2: Tessa and Gizelle I noticed checking me like from up
Speaker 2: and down.
Speaker 3: You know, just I don't know if I like this girl.
Speaker 1: There were already two girls in the house who kind
Speaker 1: of resembled Tessa and Gazelle, which automatically put them at odds.
Speaker 1: Jazelle and her doppelganger, Katie, both had long, dark hair,
Speaker 1: and I can't quite place your ethnicity kind of looks.
Speaker 3: Katie and I are very very similar, so I mean,
Speaker 3: if they're looking.
Speaker 7: For that exotic type look, there's a major competition between us.
Speaker 12: That's okay. I think she's beautiful.
Speaker 7: I know that she's older than me, so that's okay.
Speaker 1: Did you catch that shade? This unexpected twist of bringing
Speaker 1: in new cast mates is something we see over and
Speaker 1: over again in reality TV. The Traders does it RuPaul's
Speaker 1: Drag Race has done multiple seasons where there are two
Speaker 1: casts who initially know nothing about each other. America's Next
Speaker 1: Top Model didn't invent this trick, but they were one
Speaker 1: of the first to do it in this way, and
Speaker 1: while not sinister, it was clearly done to throw off
Speaker 1: the original eight and pit them against the newbies. Rewatching
Speaker 1: Cycle one made me feel older than any of the others,
Speaker 1: not just because it happened the longest ago, but because
Speaker 1: the drama feels so dated. I couldn't believe these are
Speaker 1: the things that riveted me. In two thousand and three,
Speaker 1: there was the bikini wax on episode one.
Speaker 7: I felt extremely uncomfortable with the bikini wax.
Speaker 8: It's all on two people has been down there but
Speaker 8: myself for my guy of colleges, and I give him crap.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 12: I told everybody in my whole life, I said, I
Speaker 12: will never get a bikini wax.
Speaker 1: Oh, I was too young for bikini wax in two
Speaker 1: thousand and three. But this must not have been a
Speaker 1: widespread thing back then, because these models freaked out. The
Speaker 1: waxing scene was even the clip they showed on Tyra's
Speaker 1: late night appearance with Conan O'Brian when she was promoting
Speaker 1: the show.
Speaker 11: Is that something that a model has to get his new.
Speaker 6: Models are always told by their agencies that they have
Speaker 6: to show up at a shoot clean hair, clean face,
Speaker 6: and clean shaven, and a lot of models don't really
Speaker 6: understand what that is. I think, okay, clean shaven, clean shaven,
Speaker 6: and then they get to the shoot and it's like,
Speaker 6: you know, they forgot a spot, so so.
Speaker 11: Hah. But this is something that I don't think it's
Speaker 11: ever been seen on TV. And I was looking at the.
Speaker 1: Clip today, never scene before on TV. Is wild. Of course,
Speaker 1: from the beginning, the makeover episodes were a built in
Speaker 1: day of drama. Although compared to later seasons, these were
Speaker 1: pretty reasonable. Most of the girls just got two thousands
Speaker 1: highlights and elevated versions of the hair they already had.
Speaker 1: But that didn't stop the tears.
Speaker 9: Giselle cried, Giselle wine, Giselle moaned, Giselle grown, and.
Speaker 12: I'm just the way I had my hair, So I'm
Speaker 12: kind of concerned about the link.
Speaker 7: Robin's finfrushir was her whole hair situation.
Speaker 1: I don't feel that this color is right for me,
Speaker 1: so it's kind of like just having like hair color
Speaker 1: from ag double hockeysticks. The one person they did wrong
Speaker 1: Ebony Hay. Ebony was this gorgeous, striking black woman with
Speaker 1: very short, almost no hair except for a bit at
Speaker 1: the top. There wasn't much to change about her look,
Speaker 1: so Tyra decided to cut that off.
Speaker 10: It was really just frustrating, and people didn't I have
Speaker 10: the correct clippers.
Speaker 11: Everybody basically sat and they didn't know what to do.
Speaker 1: While it may seem like a simple task, the hairstylists
Speaker 1: were these white women who were honestly looking at their
Speaker 1: hair like they never touched a black woman's hair before.
Speaker 1: They had the wrong clippers. They were making jokes and
Speaker 1: shaving in the wrong direction.
Speaker 3: Leave a little top.
Speaker 5: I ain't like the way the woman was cutting my hair,
Speaker 5: or the way they have a conversation in front of them.
Speaker 11: Street Writer.
Speaker 1: As a woman who also has very short hair, who
Speaker 1: recently let her boyfriend cut it and ended up bald.
Speaker 1: I feel her pain. But despite being made the butt
Speaker 1: of the stylish jokes and getting a terrible haircut, she'd
Speaker 1: later had to fix herself. Ebanie reacted to the whole
Speaker 1: thing very well, better than I would have. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was intentional, but this botched haircut mirrors
Speaker 1: a dynamic tyr encountered in her early career, showing up
Speaker 1: on set and there's no one there who can style
Speaker 1: black hair.
Speaker 6: You know, the white girls and the Asian girls and
Speaker 6: the Latina girls. They would come to set put their
Speaker 6: little purse empty handed.
Speaker 1: Child.
Speaker 7: I came with a suitcase.
Speaker 6: I had to have the pressing comb, and sometimes the
Speaker 6: pressing comb and the hot plate. If the pressing comb
Speaker 6: that plugged in wasn't working, I had to have my
Speaker 6: Vita point grease. I had to have my.
Speaker 3: Edge toothbrush to come down my edges.
Speaker 1: Supermodels, ducky thought Jordan Dunn in Anakia. I have all
Speaker 1: talked about this. Maybe the show was trying to give
Speaker 1: Ebony a taste of what she'd experience in the real world,
Speaker 1: but giving a contestant a bad haircut and a competition
Speaker 1: that's all about looks seems unfair. Overall, though, the makeovers
Speaker 1: on this cycle were pretty tame, but the drama in
Speaker 1: the house was a little more spicy. America was a
Speaker 1: lot more religious twenty years ago, and ANTM really played
Speaker 1: into the conflict between Team I'm a Christian I e.
Speaker 1: Robin Shannon and Kizzie versus Team Atheist, whose sole member
Speaker 1: was a least.
Speaker 10: Serious least as.
Speaker 7: When I found out Elist was an atheist, I had
Speaker 7: extreme reservations about her that really fans are.
Speaker 13: For Robin, of course, qualifies every seaman with I'm not
Speaker 13: saying that you're going to hell, but you're going to hell.
Speaker 13: Robin actually showed me this Bible verse foolish is the
Speaker 13: man who says there is no God?
Speaker 3: Like when I read it, it made me think of you.
Speaker 1: So Robin, Elise might as well have been an alien.
Speaker 1: I genuinely think she'd never met an atheist before, but
Speaker 1: the Christianity conflict didn't end there. Ebony, the one who
Speaker 1: got the bad haircut, was queer and one night, wanted
Speaker 1: her girlfriend to come visit the hotel. When she asked
Speaker 1: the other girls if they were cool with it, the
Speaker 1: Christians Robin and Shannon were not feeling it. You know,
Speaker 1: if it's okay if my girlfriend come over for about
Speaker 1: an hour or two today.
Speaker 10: He's a lesbian and I found this offensive my voice
Speaker 10: on him and say, Shah, I think that definitely it
Speaker 10: is wrong. It says in the Bible that it's an
Speaker 10: abomination to the Lord.
Speaker 11: I'll agree with you.
Speaker 1: But instead of making this moment about these two models
Speaker 1: and their bigoted beliefs, producers pivoted and focused on Ebane's
Speaker 1: visit with her girlfriend. They hugged and talked about Ebone's
Speaker 1: new haircut. Ebone braided her girlfriend's hair. It was sweet.
Speaker 6: The girls were very nice.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: They came and introduced themselves. Sorry, this is introduce yourself, Harris,
Speaker 7: to see.
Speaker 1: That everyone except Robin and Shannon.
Speaker 7: Of course, you know, you really let me know that
Speaker 7: she's okay and she's in this.
Speaker 6: For a long one.
Speaker 1: For everything A and TM did wrong, this one moment
Speaker 1: on cycle one, they got right This was two thousand
Speaker 1: and three, same sex marriage was still illegal, and for
Speaker 1: a lot of viewers, this was probably their first time
Speaker 1: seeing a loving black queer relationship on cable. Ebane ended
Speaker 1: up getting eliminated on episode four, Justice for Ebone. Today,
Speaker 1: she's a fitness instructor in Brooklyn. I found her on
Speaker 1: Instagram and it seems she and Ka are still in
Speaker 1: each other's lives as friends. Religion and sexuality weren't this
Speaker 1: season's only source of drama. Let's go back to Elise,
Speaker 1: the self proclaimed atheist. Her whole persona was about how
Speaker 1: smart she was. She wanted to be a doctor, and
Speaker 1: she really struggled with being on a show with people
Speaker 1: she thought were dumb. Perhaps her most memorable moment with
Speaker 1: a confessional crash out, Adrian, stop interrupting me, stop quoting Jane.
Speaker 3: Silent Bob right next to my ear.
Speaker 13: I've had enough of you.
Speaker 7: Jay, you offended me today. I know the medical school.
Speaker 5: It's hard work.
Speaker 13: How could I possibly not be aware of that?
Speaker 7: Kate, I don't believe a word that comes out of
Speaker 7: your mouth.
Speaker 13: You're the most insincere person I've ever met.
Speaker 11: Giselle, you worthless.
Speaker 3: You're so wasteful, bitchy, stupid, You're worthless.
Speaker 7: Your parents must be shamed of you.
Speaker 1: Damn, that's harsh, even about today day standards. Elif made
Speaker 1: it to the final three, which might have something to
Speaker 1: do with the fact that she was a source of drama.
Speaker 1: Gazelle told me that around the time of Eliza's rant,
Speaker 1: the show started to feel different. It became what Tyra
Speaker 1: and Ken Mott called a drumality.
Speaker 7: This show, this is a this is a reality show
Speaker 7: that you're doing.
Speaker 6: Drumality.
Speaker 3: What was that a drumality?
Speaker 2: My co executive producer says, dramality.
Speaker 7: Okay, it's drama reality, it's dramality.
Speaker 1: Yes, here's Gazelle.
Speaker 7: We all got along at first. Then I started realizing
Speaker 7: that when we would sit down and do our one
Speaker 7: on ones with the producers, the interview format started to change.
Speaker 7: First it was very like, well, how do you think
Speaker 7: the photoshoot went, what did you learn? What's your experience like?
Speaker 7: Then later it started becoming more like, well, how do
Speaker 7: you feel about that girl? And did you know that
Speaker 7: this girl said something about that one? And did you
Speaker 7: hear that these girls are saying all of this about
Speaker 7: this one? That's kind of like where the shift happens.
Speaker 7: And then you know, she called me a cunt and
Speaker 7: that my parents should be ashamed of me, and I
Speaker 7: was like, Okay, this is a whole different ballgame.
Speaker 1: Care Gaselle's right, this was a whole different ballgame. It
Speaker 1: certainly wasn't the modeling competition she signed up for. More
Speaker 1: after the break, I wanted to spend the whole episode
Speaker 1: dissecting cycle one because it's the blueprint, the bare bones
Speaker 1: image of Tyra's initial vision, and from the beginning, Tyra
Speaker 1: talked about size inclusivity.
Speaker 6: All callers, all shapes, and all sizes.
Speaker 1: Before we go on, I want to flag for listeners
Speaker 1: that were going to discuss eating disorders and body dysmorphia
Speaker 1: in the next section. Before Tyra filmed the first episode
Speaker 1: of A and TM, she was a nineties runway model
Speaker 1: at the height of the heroin Chic era. Tyra said
Speaker 1: in interviews that she was repeatedly told she was too
Speaker 1: big for runway.
Speaker 3: I was told that I wasn't good enough. They said,
Speaker 3: your but is getting too big.
Speaker 1: The KPE Moss body standard simply wasn't possible for Tyra,
Speaker 1: so she made her own lane found clientele who appreciated
Speaker 1: her curves and she worked it. Tyra knew what it
Speaker 1: was like to be told you don't have the right body,
Speaker 1: so she decided to embrace different body types on America's
Speaker 1: Next Top Model. From cycle one until the end of
Speaker 1: the show, she always included at least one and for
Speaker 1: a long time only one plus sized or curvy model.
Speaker 1: But despite featuring plus sized models, ANTM still trafficked in
Speaker 1: dangerous body standards. Contestants and fans have talked about how
Speaker 1: the body shaming they heard on the show made them
Speaker 1: feel bad about themselves and caused dysmorphia in eating disorders,
Speaker 1: and that body shaming was a part of the show
Speaker 1: from the very beginning. At least was fine ten and
Speaker 1: one hundred and fourteen pounds. We know this because in
Speaker 1: the first cycles of the show they weighed the contestants
Speaker 1: on screen and read the number out loud. We were
Speaker 1: living in some dark times, y'all. Alise wait the least
Speaker 1: of all the girls, and rumors of her eating disorder
Speaker 1: started when the other girl said they noticed how little
Speaker 1: she ate in her frequent trips to the bathroom. Now
Speaker 1: we have to say this. Alise vehemently denied having an
Speaker 1: eating disorder on the show and after, but whether she
Speaker 1: did or didn't, it was a huge part of her storyline.
Speaker 1: Here are some of the girls speculating about her after
Speaker 1: a dinner with j Manuel and Tyra.
Speaker 12: That's kind of an issue right now, whether Release has
Speaker 12: some eating disorders or not. But we're kind of confused.
Speaker 12: We don't know what's really going on with her.
Speaker 9: I'm really worried about Realise. She's a smart, smart girl,
Speaker 9: but she's not fooling anybody and even missed tire Susan.
Speaker 3: Alise ate like a whole plate of stuff. She mentioned
Speaker 3: to somebody that it was because Tyra.
Speaker 1: Was there, and when asked during a judging panel which
Speaker 1: of their fellow models should be eliminated, more than one
Speaker 1: girl said Elise.
Speaker 10: I think this time she's struggling through unhealthy eating habits
Speaker 10: and that could harm her in the future.
Speaker 6: I don't want to be the one to judge.
Speaker 1: Elise because I'm very worried about her health. And here
Speaker 1: they are speculating again at another dinner, all.
Speaker 10: Of the girls are concerned about Elise. When we were
Speaker 10: eating at He's the place she got oatme.
Speaker 9: She doesn't really eat as much as I would care
Speaker 9: for her.
Speaker 1: To keep in mind, anorexia has the highest mortality rate
Speaker 1: of any mental illness. Yes, it's classified as the eating
Speaker 1: disorder and mental illness. But the closest the judges ever
Speaker 1: came to addressing it was this moment when they asked, Elise, are.
Speaker 5: You naturally about banners that something work towards No, I'm
Speaker 5: naturally the spin I love it.
Speaker 3: I'm not so against thin if it's natural or no.
Speaker 11: You have nobody hot on you, so there's no insulation.
Speaker 11: It's a little for me.
Speaker 1: While Alice denied having an eating disorder on the show,
Speaker 1: other contestants from Psyco one say they're eating disorder started
Speaker 1: after the competition ended.
Speaker 3: I like Gizelle because it just seems like she wants this.
Speaker 7: But I think she needs to tighten ue.
Speaker 2: It's kind of wide.
Speaker 1: Here's Gazil who's asked, Tyra just called wide on national television.
Speaker 7: I saw it on the show, which is like a
Speaker 7: shock to me, which means now you're putting it into
Speaker 7: everybody's head all across America that I have a white ass.
Speaker 7: So clearly I'm not good enough. Clearly I can't be
Speaker 7: a model. So how do I get rid of this
Speaker 7: white ass. Oh, maybe I should stop eating. And then
Speaker 7: when I eat too much in one setting because I
Speaker 7: get so hungry, Oh, now I feel guilty. How about
Speaker 7: I go throw that up now. I walked into that
Speaker 7: show with a lot of confidence and then I ended
Speaker 7: up having anorexia issues after that, bolimia issues after that.
Speaker 7: Have never overcome my own body of shame that I have.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't just Gazelle. Robin, the only Curby model
Speaker 1: on cycle one, got it the worst. Now I have
Speaker 1: to pause and say this. I'm sure I thought Robin
Speaker 1: was beautiful when the show first aired, but rewatching, Oh,
Speaker 1: I was gagged. Robin is a baddie. She has the
Speaker 1: type of body people go get a BBL to have,
Speaker 1: And this is how the judges talked about her.
Speaker 5: Robin's doubt is first, I'm concerning about being a supermodel.
Speaker 3: Because I think the next America's.
Speaker 11: Top model is not a plus sized model.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry that that's of course Janis Dickinson who was
Speaker 1: especially outspoken about Robin's body, but she wasn't the only one.
Speaker 7: Now are we shooting for the large size?
Speaker 3: Yes, Robin would represent a plus size model.
Speaker 1: One problem that.
Speaker 3: I do have with Robin. I think on the top,
Speaker 3: she's not plus sizing.
Speaker 2: On the bottom, she is.
Speaker 6: Robin, first of all, is too old to be starting.
Speaker 7: She's huge. She's not going to be a top model.
Speaker 3: Car toppling company?
Speaker 1: I think, did she say a car toppling company? What
Speaker 1: does that even mean? Imagine being invited to a show
Speaker 1: where you've been told your body type is welcome and
Speaker 1: even celebrated as a representation of real women, and then
Speaker 1: going home and hearing the judges say this nonsense. While
Speaker 1: there may have been questions about Elisa's size, she was
Speaker 1: rarely talked about as negatively as Robin. In fact, Elise
Speaker 1: is actually praised for having the most high fashioned looks.
Speaker 6: When I look at Elise, I think that the body
Speaker 6: is rightful quotes.
Speaker 11: She's just real finn. I love it.
Speaker 7: At least I thought had a really good look for
Speaker 7: the runway.
Speaker 5: Very finnving penn Abadan would love her.
Speaker 1: We don't know if producers actually thought she had an
Speaker 1: eating disorder, or if they kept the questions about her
Speaker 1: eating habits and the edit for a dramatic effect, And
Speaker 1: I don't know which one is more disturbing. What we
Speaker 1: do know is that it was such a topic of conversation.
Speaker 1: It made us believe that she was struggling with eating.
Speaker 1: Some of those clips you heard earlier are from an
Speaker 1: episode titled the Girl who Everyone Thinks is killing herself.
Speaker 1: What message does it send that the girl we've been
Speaker 1: let to believe has an eating disorder? It is also
Speaker 1: the girl who's most ready for high fashion, the girl
Speaker 1: with the best body, a girl who made it to
Speaker 1: the top three. While we were told that there was
Speaker 1: no place in the competition or industry for plus size
Speaker 1: model Robin, I.
Speaker 11: Don't have a market here for Robin. You know, there's
Speaker 11: no markets for precizes in front.
Speaker 1: I know A and TM didn't invent these standards. A
Speaker 1: lot of what we heard on the show about bodies
Speaker 1: and weight were a reflection of the actual modeling world,
Speaker 1: and that's been Tyra's defense against the criticism.
Speaker 6: We were trying to be as realistic in the modeling industry,
Speaker 6: not trying to embarrass anybody. It's just what it's done,
Speaker 6: So we're pulling back the curtain.
Speaker 1: Tyra said she wanted to challenge the rigid beauty standards
Speaker 1: of her industry. That's why someone like Robin was even
Speaker 1: on the show, but it doesn't seem like much of
Speaker 1: a challenge if the judge spent the entire season calling
Speaker 1: Robin fat and then justifying it by saying they're just
Speaker 1: being realistic, And why even cast and keep a girl
Speaker 1: with an alleged eating disorder until the end if you're
Speaker 1: not going to really address it. Tyra did come to
Speaker 1: the model's hotel to have a heart to heart about insecurities.
Speaker 1: She used that as an opportunity to talk about eating disorders,
Speaker 1: and occasionally Tyra would counter Janus's insults. But if Tyra
Speaker 1: really wanted to make this a learning experience, why didn't
Speaker 1: she bring in an expert to talk about healthy eating
Speaker 1: and image. Remember this is a season that brought in
Speaker 1: a guest acting coach, a guest stylist, and a guest
Speaker 1: trainer to weigh the girls on camera. We could almost
Speaker 1: forgive A and TM for degrading women's bodies on national
Speaker 1: TV to an audience of young women if they would
Speaker 1: have learned the lesson and changed after the first season.
Speaker 1: But we all know the body shame and continued for
Speaker 1: a long time after that. When it was all said
Speaker 1: and done, Cycle one ended with Adrian Curry wearing the crown.
Speaker 1: After passing all the tests production through at her, Adrian
Speaker 1: became the show's first ever winner. The very first episode
Speaker 1: of America's Next Top Model was titled The Girl Wants
Speaker 1: It So Bad. As Tyra laid out in the first
Speaker 1: thirty seconds of the premiere, she was looking for someone
Speaker 1: who wasn't an obvious winner.
Speaker 3: I want to make a top model in eight weeks.
Speaker 1: I want to take someone from obscurity to fame, a
Speaker 1: person she could transform into a top model. She wanted
Speaker 1: a diamond in the rough.
Speaker 6: Some of these girls you would not look at twice
Speaker 6: in the streets.
Speaker 3: But I'll know when I can make an.
Speaker 1: Inside Oh you come to la father.
Speaker 6: This is the once in a lifetime opportunity, a life
Speaker 6: changing opportunity.
Speaker 3: What I'm looking for is a star.
Speaker 1: That's all. And that star turned out to be Adrian Curry.
Speaker 1: She was the embodiment of everything Tyr was looking for.
Speaker 1: She was different in edgy, A self proclaimed tomboy with
Speaker 1: a history of teenage drug use. She had a habit
Speaker 1: of quoting the movie Jay and Silent Bob, a perfect
Speaker 1: candidate for Tyer to showcase her ability to find and
Speaker 1: make a star and Adrian took on the competition with
Speaker 1: a self assured but laid back attitude.
Speaker 6: I'm funny, I'm pretty, I got perfect too.
Speaker 3: What do you think makes you special?
Speaker 9: I'm like a really big time boy.
Speaker 1: I mean, she genuinely brought into the dream the show
Speaker 1: was selling. She took the competition seriously. There was a
Speaker 1: time she got food poisoning and was threatened with a
Speaker 1: elimination if she didn't leave the hospital to make it
Speaker 1: to the judging panel.
Speaker 3: I would never cult Adrian for being sick, but unfortunately,
Speaker 3: the judges came to the decision that if she was
Speaker 3: not present during the judging, she would be eliminated because
Speaker 3: it wouldn't be fair to the other girls that would
Speaker 3: be present.
Speaker 9: The doctor told me it was a severe case of
Speaker 9: food poisoning. I faked being better to get out of
Speaker 9: the hospital. I'm not gonna miss this elimination.
Speaker 3: There's no way.
Speaker 1: The one time I had food poisoning, I could barely
Speaker 1: lift my head, let alone put on a bunch of
Speaker 1: makeup and get judged in front of a panel for hours.
Speaker 1: But Adrian left the er and showed up at the
Speaker 1: judging panel, which again was a curtain drape hotel room
Speaker 1: with red ties holding back the fabric. Here's what Jane
Speaker 1: said to Adrian that night.
Speaker 2: So all of the matter that you showed up is
Speaker 2: what it takes to be a model at a supermodel
Speaker 2: well done.
Speaker 1: I applaud that the fact that they encouraged her to
Speaker 1: leave the hospital and celebrated it was it the very
Speaker 1: least irresponsible. But this was just a small part of
Speaker 1: Adrian's storyline. By far, Adrian was the girl who tried
Speaker 1: the hardest, seemed the happiest to be there, was the
Speaker 1: most cooperative, complained the least, and had the biggest transformation.
Speaker 1: Tyro said as much when she crowned her the winner.
Speaker 2: Adrian, you have transformed like Cinderella. When I looked at
Speaker 2: you in LA her semi finals, I was like, I
Speaker 2: don't even think she'll make it to the finals. Then
Speaker 2: you got here first week, I was like, I don't
Speaker 2: think she'll make it to the second week, and you're
Speaker 2: standing here.
Speaker 1: Adrian came from a working class background and her mother
Speaker 1: had gotten scammed out of a bunch of money by
Speaker 1: pay for play modeling agencies. She'd been trying to make
Speaker 1: her daughter's dreams come true, but it was money the
Speaker 1: family couldn't afford to lose. Adrian didn't just want to win,
Speaker 1: She needed to win. And you could tell.
Speaker 9: I don't want to leave neither one in my life
Speaker 9: drastically changes and for the better. I lose in I
Speaker 9: phone more and more into the hole.
Speaker 1: She may not have been as refined as some of
Speaker 1: the other girls, or as runway ready as a lease,
Speaker 1: but she did want it bad and she had the
Speaker 1: best story. And this isn't an insult. She isn't in
Speaker 1: denial about why she won. A few years ago, in
Speaker 1: an interview, she said, quote, did I deserve to win? No?
Speaker 1: I just gave the producers what they wanted to make
Speaker 1: a diamond get a show going. I say that to
Speaker 1: point out that from the very beginning, AATM was about
Speaker 1: selling a Cinderella story, making a nameless but seemingly deserving
Speaker 1: young woman's dreams come true by propelling her into supermodel stardom.
Speaker 1: Cinderella is a happily ever after kind of story. She
Speaker 1: got her prints in her castle, and we heard all
Speaker 1: season what A and TM's winner would.
Speaker 2: Get a contract with Revlin, a fashion spread in Marie
Speaker 2: Claire magazine, and representation by Top Modeling agency.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. After we closed the storybook and
Speaker 1: went to sleep, we never came back to make sure
Speaker 1: Cinderella really got that happily ever after, because if we
Speaker 1: found out the prince was a jerk and the castle
Speaker 1: was a rental, the story wouldn't be a fairy tale.
Speaker 1: That's true about all Cinderella stories. We never get to
Speaker 1: see what happens next. And for Adrian, A and TM's
Speaker 1: first winner, her fairytale story ended abruptly as soon as
Speaker 1: the cameras stopped rolling. According to her, she never got
Speaker 1: the prize. She stayed a publicly in multiple places going
Speaker 1: back to two thousand and seven that the Revlon contract
Speaker 1: turned out to be a fifteen thousand dollars job to
Speaker 1: model makeup in a room for some execs, and according
Speaker 1: to her, she never even got the fifteen thousand dollars
Speaker 1: and the Wilhelmina contract well, Adrian said, when A and
Speaker 1: TM replaced them with another agency, IMG Models on the
Speaker 1: next season, they signed her as a retaliation. According to Adrian,
Speaker 1: when she reached out to Tyra and the producers to
Speaker 1: get advice about navigating her contract and getting paid by Revlin,
Speaker 1: she was met with crickets. In fact, she said the
Speaker 1: only time she ever heard anything from Top Model after
Speaker 1: her win was when she decided to do the reality
Speaker 1: show The Surreal Life. Then the agency reached out to
Speaker 1: let her know Tyra and Top Model execs didn't want
Speaker 1: her to do the reality show. She ignored them, but
Speaker 1: by the time she spoke out to tell her truth
Speaker 1: about her A and TM experience, we had already moved
Speaker 1: on to new models and new drama. A and TM
Speaker 1: became bigger than Tyra's original vision as the challenges got
Speaker 1: wilder and Tyra got more eccentric. It stopped being a
Speaker 1: modeling competition designed to give contestants authentic modeling experience and
Speaker 1: became a Tyra Banks circus, complete with acrobatic photo shoots
Speaker 1: and clownish makeovers. We weren't paying attention to what happened
Speaker 1: to last season's winner. Cycle one was the blueprint for
Speaker 1: everything we love and hate about A and TM. Cycle
Speaker 1: one walked so moments like we were rooting for you
Speaker 1: in terms like smies could run. But it's also the
Speaker 1: cycle that laid the blueprint for body shaming, exploiting people's
Speaker 1: pain for a storyline, and selling a lie to a
Speaker 1: bunch of people with the dream while getting us the viewers,
Speaker 1: to look the other way. After cycle one, the show
Speaker 1: took off and the America's Next Top Model machine was
Speaker 1: up and running. There was a growing supply of new
Speaker 1: models who happily signed up to reveal their secrets and
Speaker 1: trauma and go through grueling, twenty hour long production days
Speaker 1: for little to no money. They signed up to temporarily
Speaker 1: give up their autonomy and have their most embarrassing and
Speaker 1: difficult moments witnessed by us, all for the chance to
Speaker 1: be America's next Top Models, thinking they would be the
Speaker 1: one who would actually make it. On the next episode,
Speaker 1: you'll hear more from the models. I'll tell you what
Speaker 1: they thought they were getting when they find on the
Speaker 1: dotted line, and what it turned out to be. We'll
Speaker 1: explore the A and TM contestant contract and talk about
Speaker 1: how it enabled one of the biggest controversies in A
Speaker 1: and TM history.
Speaker 7: I was in debt after the show.
Speaker 14: I was getting built for the testing, I was getting
Speaker 14: built for the dresses.
Speaker 3: So now I'm having to pay, and I'm in debt,
Speaker 3: and i don't have a.
Speaker 7: Place to stay.
Speaker 14: I'm living on a couch and everywhere I go, people
Speaker 14: are wanting my autograph, taking pictures with me, and it
Speaker 14: was a very stressful time because Tyra owned me for
Speaker 14: that year.
Speaker 15: I have thought receipts, I have got names, I've got stories.
Speaker 15: I know more about this show than I ever willingly
Speaker 15: wanted to. Because of my own experience and hearing other
Speaker 15: girls experiences, I was like, this can't be real.
Speaker 8: Whole week or two later, somebody from the network production
Speaker 8: called me.
Speaker 7: It was like, they want to have a meeting with
Speaker 7: you in.
Speaker 8: New York City and they basically told me we can't
Speaker 8: air you as the winner because you violated your contract.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Curse of America's Next Top Model.
Speaker 1: We really appreciate the support. We'd love for you to
Speaker 1: really show your support by subscribing to our show on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, and don't forget to leave us a five
Speaker 1: star rating and review. If you love the show, tell
Speaker 1: your group, chat, your co workers, your friends, your mama
Speaker 1: to check us out, and if you don't, maybe keep
Speaker 1: that one to yourself. Thanks again to all of our
Speaker 1: listeners The Curse of America's Next Top Model. It's a
Speaker 1: production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group
Speaker 1: in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced
Speaker 1: by Nancy Glass, hosted and senior produced by me Bridget Armstrong.
Speaker 1: Our story editor is Monique Leboard, also produced by Ben
Speaker 1: Fetterman and Andrea Gunning. Associate producers are Alisha Key, Kristin Melcrey,
Speaker 1: and Curry Richmond. Consulting producers are Oliver TwixT and Kate Taylor.
Speaker 1: Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Kriincheck. Audio
Speaker 1: editing and mixing by Andrew Callaway and Matt del Vecchio.
Speaker 1: The Curse of America's Next Top Model theme music was
Speaker 1: composed by Oliver Bains music library provided by myb Music.
Speaker 1: Special Thanks to everyone we interviewed for this podcast, especially
Speaker 1: the models for sharing their stories and For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Also check out the Glass podcast
Speaker 1: Instagram at Glass Podcasts for Curse of America's Next Top Model,
Speaker 1: behind the scenes content and more.